The Florida Panthers continued their road trip through the State of New York when they paid a visit to the Islanders.
Saturday night on Long Island was what the team was hoping was their last game before the injury reinforcements little by little would begin making their way back to the lineup.
How about a comeback win? After surrendering the first three goals of the game in the first 12 minutes, the Panthers took control and responded with six unanswered to win 6-3 from UBS Arena.
Before either of these teams could get settled, the Islanders were the first to strike.
After a face-off win in the Panthers zone, Dennis Cholowski walked the blue line before he fired a wrister through a set of screens and past Spencer Knight 1:32 into the hockey game to give the home team the early lead.
Just minutes later, the Isles struck again after another face-off win in the Cats zone.
New York got their cycle going before they got it back to Ryan Pulock at the point. His shot found Kyle Palmieri all alone in front of Knight.
Originally making the save off the redirection, Palmieri saw that the puck was loose before poking it in to extend the lead to two at 6:01 of the first.
Florida’s defensive coverage cost them again as the Islanders scored off the cycle.
Palmieri circled around the Cats net where he dropped the puck off to Maxim Tsyplakov after curling up to the right circle. His shot missed the net, deflected off the end boards and found Brock Nelson near the blue paint.
With Knight up on the crease, Nelson used the backhand attempt to deflect it off the back side to extend the lead to three just 11:41 into the game.
The red-hot start for Sam Reinhart continued with his sixth goal of the season.
As New York was attempting to make a line change, Reinhart was able to get behind the defense after the puck broke free, and finished the solo breakaway beating Semyon Varlomov past the glove to cut the deficit to two at 13:27.
Panthers settled down with not allowing a shot in a nine minute stretch in the latter half of the first period
Florida’s struggle to break the puck out of their end continued for the first few minutes of the second, but were able to cut the Isles lead to one a few minutes later.
A drive to the net by Matthew Tkachuk knocked Varlomov’s stick out, and as the Islanders attempted a breakout, Dmitry Kulikov separated it at the half wall, and with multiple bounces in the low slot, the Cats converted on their third chance thanks to Tkachuk with his first goal of the season.
Florida got their speed and forecheck going in the period, spending more time in the offensive zone.
It paid off towards the final few minutes.
From the trapezoid in their zone, they broke the puck out quickly where Kulokov found Mackie Samoskevich in stride.
Coming up the right wing with speed, Samoskevich faked a cut to Varlomov’s left, and his attempt at a wraparound gave him his first NHL goal at 18:16 of the second frame.
That was after Samoskevich was not able to convert earlier in the frame after a shot rang off the far post.
Knight got the secondary assist on the goal as two of the three players who got a point on the play were natives of Connecticut.
Momentum was surely shifting in the Panthers favor as their exits were more crisp as the game went on.
They sure carried that into the third, and the comeback was on.
Off a face-off, the puck found Tkachuk at the near side wall, where his shot was deflected off the left pad of Varlomov and then the leg of Sam Bennett to give the Panthers their first lead of the night.
The onslaught continued on the power play at 9:49 of the third period, thanks to Tkachuk.
Using an Islanders screen from the right circle, Tkachuk beat Varlomov on the far side to have the Panthers go from a three goal deficit, to a two goal lead.
The Islanders had a chance to cut the deficit to one when they went on the power play.
Islanders head coach Patrick Roy brought the extra attacker on, but the Panthers denied them.
Gustav Forsling scored from the Panthers goal line into the empty net short handed to make it six unanswered to give them a 6-3 win on Long Island to extend their road winning streak to four.
Head coach Paul Maurice got his 100th win in the regular season as the Panthers bench boss.
They now shift their focus to Western New York where they will face the Buffalo Sabres for the second time this season, in hopes to avenge their loss back in the third game of the season.
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